Jahan leads Sidecar’s technology vision. As a University of Michigan Student, Jahan was the lead programmer on the “Magic Bus Project,” a transit application that tells passengers how long they’ll wait for the next bus. This school project became Shepherd Intelligent Systems, a transportation software company for public transit, taxi, limo, school, and shuttle bus fleets that is still used by the University of Michigan today. In 2011, Jahan, Sunil and Nick came together to create Sidecar. Under Jahan’s leadership, the engineering team has developed a dynamic, intuitive and scalable platform that has matched more than 250,000 shared rides to date.

In the winter of 2011 Jahan found himself stranded when he left a party in the Marina District of San Francisco and couldn’t find a cab. He grabbed a ride home with a pizza delivery guy and gave him $20 for helping him out. Just like that, an idea was born.